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This week marks the 20th anniversary of the first online sale. Since that sale - a copy of an album by the artist Sting - online retailing has grown to such an extent that it is now claimed that 95 per cent of the UK population has shopped online and close to one in four deciding to shop online each week. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Listen7:18

On Friday, December 12, Stephen Palmer got a nasty Christmas surprise. Many of the electronics in his Amazon shop TV Village, were being sold for one penny. In this segment, Stephen tells his story, then law prof Frank Pasquale reflects on algorithms gone haywire.